Danny Sullivan had announced some time back that he will be starting a new SEO blog: Search Engine Land.
Chris Sherman and Barry Schwartz are his associates in the new venture. Danny has also declared the names of correspondents who are Phil Bradley, Bill Slawski, Jennifer Slegg, Brian Smith, and Greg Sterling. This is after Danny announced at the pubcon that all “all the other search correspondents who write at SEW Blog will also be coming over to Search Engine Land.”
Barry Schwartz, in a post, says that:
It is less than 10 months since I joined blogging at Search Engine Watch. I enjoy it, but I enjoy working with Danny on a daily basis. Waking up a bit earlier is well worth the experience I get from this.
In a post at Cartoonbarry, he says that:
I never signed a contract with Incisive to write at Search Engine Watch. I was a month to month type of writer. Honestly, a long term contract was never offered, but I never requested it.Incisive has not once called me or emailed me about my future plans after Danny made his announcement. I have yet to hear from them, even up to the time of writing this post. I guess they assumed that Chris and I would stay on at SEW.
As per staying back, this is what he had to say:
I think it would be suicide for me.
(1) Who am I to fill the shoes of Danny Sullivan?
(2) I have a full time job already, I don’t have the time to run SEW.
(3) I feel that anyone, outside of Chris Sherman, who takes on this role, will be hated by the SEM community for attempting.
All this does show Incisive in a bad light. With Chris’s contract ending with the end of this year, and Danny’s ending this month, the question that everyone is asking is “Will SEW survive?” Given that they didn’t even have a long term contract with Barry, nothing much in terms of surprises are expected from them.
But Search Engine Watch has attained an enviable share of the blogosphere lately. SEW Forums has been one of the most vibrant and productive forums in the industry too. For many Danny fans it would be a seamless transition and only the names will change.
But can be generalized to all the readers of SEW? Probably not. As so many others, even I am a fan of Danny, his dedication and command over the search engine community. Be it through the SEW blog or Search Engine Strategies, conference, he has left an impression in all he has done.
However, I will also be sorry if SEW sinks without much whimper. Greg Sterling and Elisabeth Osmeloski are two probables on the list to replace the outgoing trio. Only time will tell how effective the replacement team will be given that they will be rowing against the tide.
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